The present invention relates to a weapon utilized for marksmanship training and more particularly to a laser small arms firing system for use in training.
Several United States Patents have disclosed the use of a portable hand held weapon for actual combat use and for training purposes. U.S. Pat. No. 3,404,350 discloses a portable laser system placed in a pistol configured housing with an aiming telescope. The apparatus of this particular patent emits a laser beam which is powered from a battery located outside of the weapon housing. U.S. Pat. No. 3,335,934 also discloses the general concept of utilizing a laser in a pistol. U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,404,305; 3,454,898 and 3,478,278 disclose the use of lasers in connection with rifles or carbines.
A rifle training device is disclosed by U.S. Pat. No. 3,792,535. In this patent a cumbersome high voltage laser system including a transmitter, receiver and hit indicator is mounted to a rifle barrel. A retroflective means is provided in a target used with the rifle to indicate that the target has been hit with the laser beam.
Another U.S. Pat. No. 3,447,033 discloses a training device used on a tank in which a laser unit is mounted on the gun barrel of the tank with the power supply for firing the laser unit being contained in a housing which is mounted on the tank. The laser beam is fired at a target provided with a reflective surface which when hit by the laser beam produces a flash resembling that of a projectile hit.
It is also known in the art to use light beams in shooting galleries and other amusements areas to fire at darkened targets containing photosensitive cells. A typical such application is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,220,732 in which a strobe light with suitable optics is mounted in the barrel of a gun and is activated by a trigger switch which is connected to circuitry and a power source mounted in the barrel of the gun. In this patent, the target has a photoelectric cell mounted therein which is energized when impinged by a light source to activate a solenoid so that the target is displaced from its original position indicating that a hit has been scored.
While the above disclosed prior art does show the use of laser weapons and light sources for simulation of small arms firing, none of these weapons provides a safe realistic simulation of an actual firing of a weapon and quick determination of whether the target is hit.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,995,376 and 4,102,059 assigned to Cerberonics Inc. disclose a laser light source for simulation of arms firing which overcomes many of the these disadvantages. The patents disclose a miniaturized laser with optics mounted on the barrel of a weapon, with a detector unit mounted on a target. The power source and circuitry for the laser are contained within the weapon with no significant appearance or mass change in the original characteristics of the weapon. The laser-equipped weapon is fired in a conventional manner with either blank or live ammunition by squeezing off a shot while aiming at the target, which causes the laser to emit a harmless single pulse of coherent light. The frequency of the light is chosen to be invisible to human eyes, so that the human focus reflex which would otherwise concentrate the emitted light to burn out retina cells is not triggered should the laser strike any persons nearby. The pulse is aimed at the target and, if the target is hit, the detector unit receives and processes the pulse to cause an audible sound identifying that a hit has been registered. Thus both the weapons trainee and the instructor know when the weapon was fired accurately.
However, even this device is deficient in certain aspects relating to weapons fire simulation. The system disclosed makes no provision for discrimination between an accurate hit and a near miss, the latter of which is a useful diagnostic indicator in weapons training. Further, should the weapons training involve a group of competing or cooperating trainees firing at one or more common targets, there is no provision for target detection of which trainee from among the group has hit the target. Moreover, the device makes no provision for disabling the laser output when a number of shots corresponding to the ammunition available in the weapon has been fired.
A number of target systems have been disclosed in the prior art which discriminate between a hit and a near miss in simulated weapons fire. U.S. Pat. No. 4,083,560 discloses an array scanning system for determining the center of a laser radiation pattern striking a target composed of an array of photocells. Another such target system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,177,580 and a third such system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,195,422. U.S. Pat. No. 4,137,651 discloses a laser target system which includes an optical display on a reflective target screen. The screen image may be projected by motion picture projectors, and the simulated weapons fire is directed at the screen images to be reflected to a laser detector.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,063,368 discloses a weapons simulation system including a laser transmitter and detector. The laser transmitter is triggered by firing the weapon to which it is attached and weapon identification data is then transmitted by a plurality of laser diodes. The resulting beams are directed to project an overlapping pattern at the proximate distance of the target. The detection system mounted on the target need not include an array of photocells but does incorporate decoding means for determining the identity of the weapon which has fired to strike the target. The detection system also determines which one or more of the four overlapping beams has struck the target. However, this device has several deficiencies which make it less than ideal for flexible weapons simulation. Firstly, the plurality of laser diodes on the weapon must be aligned precisely in order to allow the target to discriminate accurately between a hit and a near miss. Secondly, the use of so many laser diodes increases the mass and power requirements of the laser transmitter as a whole. Thirdly, since the overlap pattern of the laser pulses varies significantly depending on the distance of the target from the transmitter, the system's ability to accurately distinguish between a hit and a near miss will vary according to the distance between the weapon and the target.
Another known laser training system is used by the United States Army and manufactured by Xerox Corporation. This system is called MILES and stands for Multiple Integrated Laser Engagement System. The Miles transmitter which is mounted on the weapon sends a laser signal made up of words which in turn are made up of 11 bits. Each word contains six pulses and five empty bits. Transmitters designed for different weapons are coded differently to provide for a weapons hierarchy. The transmitter for the M16 rifle sends a message made up of four kill words followed by 128 near miss words. The 128 near miss are sent on the assumption that a soldier firing a weapon that is weaving back and forth over the target would probably achieve a near miss. Each kill word is made up of the 11 bits (11001000111), and each near miss word is made up of the 11 bits (110001000111). The messages are generated by an RCA CDP 1802 microprocessor with the program contained in a 512 word ROM programmed to represent the particular weapon desired. Decoding of the kill and near miss words is accomplished by the detector which contains shift registers and a custom made decoder chip. The MILES system requires a great deal of battery power for the microprocessor and ROM, and is too bulky to install in a handgun.